The opioid ‘crisis’

In Scientific American: People Are Dying Because of Ignorance, not Because of Opioids by Carl L. Hart

I am concerned that declaring the opioid crisis a national emergency will serve primarily to increase law-enforcement budgets, precipitating an escalation of this same sort of routine racial discrimination. […]

It is certainly possible to die from an overdose of an opioid alone, but this accounts for a minority of the thousands of opioid-related deaths. Many are caused when people combine an opioid with another sedative (such as alcohol), an antihistamine (such as promethazine) or a benzodiazepine (such as Xanax or Klonopin). People are not dying because of opioids; they are dying because of ignorance.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

146 Responses to The opioid ‘crisis’

  1. DdC says:

    Marijuana is addictive for the same reason that heroin is and science knows more about why

    The research happened in an unlikely place: Brigham Young University, which is affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

    ☛ LDS Church weighs in on medical marijuana ballot initiative in Utah
    LDS has spoken out against recreational cannabis ballot initiatives in the past. Accordingly, we believe that society is best served by requiring marijuana to go through further research and the FDA approval process that all other drugs must go through before they are prescribed to patients.”

    But this paper’s findings aren’t directly applicable to human health; the experiments were done on brain cells from adolescent mice, not on human brain cells or in live mice.

    ☛ The Hype: Brain Damage in Dead Monkeys

    Edwards used government-issue marijuana compounds for the research.

    ☛ U.S.Fort Schwag Mississippi

    “You’re enough of a pro,” Nixon tells Shafer, “to know that for you to come out with something that would run counter to what the Congress feels and what the country feels, and what we’re planning to do, would make your commission just look bad as hell.”
    – Richard Milhous Nixon

    “Marijuana does not lead to physical dependency, although some evidence indicates that the heavy, long-term users may develop a psychological dependence on the drug”
    The Shafer Commission of 1970

    ☛ Cannabis Yields and Dosage (Part 1)
    This 6-inch diameter canister held 254.89 grams of federal medical marijuana for an IND patient, a typical monthly supply mailed from the federal cannabis research garden in Mississippi.

    • Servetus says:

      Brigham Young University weighing in on a scientific matter is like a fly landing on a steel I-beam.

      Physicists know the I-beam will bend under the weight of the fly, but to make the determination one needs to use laser interferometry, which is a measuring technique so precise it just proved its effectiveness by detecting a gravitational wave emanating from two colliding black holes.

      The Mormon or LDS Church rejects the findings of genetics because genetics proves that Native Americans are not descended from the lost tribes of Israel. Genetics says the Lost Tribes of Israel itself is a myth. There is no scientific evidence supporting the Biblical story of the Exodus at all. The Exodus appears to be a population dispersion into the neighboring and outlying areas of the Roman Empire. Which is contrary to the mythology outlined in the Book of Mormon claiming Jews immigrated to the New World.

      When a Mormon scientist did genetics tests on Native Americans and published a paper that said the genes didn’t confirm the gospel according to con-man Joseph Smith, he was nearly excommunicated from the LDS church. The point being, it’s not wise to listen to pseudo-scientists at Brigham Young U.

      Sure, dopamine is the chemical that transmits feelings of satisfaction, but a lot of things do that. Rocky Road ice cream does that. No one gets accused of being a Rocky Road addict. Unless of course a genetic component gives them a chocolate addiction, which is rare. Then there’s the problem with vanilla satisfaction. That’s where molecular psychiatry enters the picture to clear up what biology is being observed. Addiction is a genetics problem, not a dopamine problem.

      The University of Utah does better science, but only because they admitted foreign students and created a non-Mormon science staff from foreign nationals. This happened despite the fact the University of Utah became the ignoble university that gave us the pseudoscience of cold fusion—a concoction of two Mormon non-scientists.

      To the school’s credit, the University of Utah has one Nobel Prize winner on the science faculty. The Nobel Prize was given for advances made in genetics by Mario Capecchi, the man who helped create genetic knock-out mice. The recipient is an Italian American whose mother, Lucy Ramberg, was anti-fascist, and was reputedly arrested by the Gestapo, according to Capecchi’s recollections as a young boy.

      http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-Features/Nobel-medicine-laureates-extraordinary-tale-of-life-during-WWII

    • NorCalNative says:

      Hey DdC, what’s your location and proximity to the Santa Cruz Bear fire? Hope you’re okay.

      A recent link about the Templars was really awesome and greatly appreciated. The Christian West, i.e., the Templars were exposed to cannabis during the Crusades and I’ve always wondered why the medical and recreational merits of cannabis failed to enter mainstream European commerce.

      Did you view that video on Canna Craft in Santa Rosa? That’s where I was getting my cannabis oils and the 1:1 ratio oil my dad used for his cancer. Pretty impressive operation. If I was still in town I would have picked up some of the free weed for fire victims.

      • DdC says:

        I’m okay, thanks, closer to the beach. I heard they had it 25% contained and it didn’t grow overnight, Hazy, but no smoke smell. From a house fire. Near Boulder Creek and only one exit, one lane (each way) Hwy9 that’s usually a parking lot with traffic normally. I think they closed it. Bear Creek Rd where the fire is, is a windy short cut from Hwy17, the 4 lane that goes over the Mt to San Jose. Steep cliffs and fun for road rallies, but not fighting fires. Looks like N Cal is doing better. Still no word from the asshole in chief.

        I put this together during our last fire on the mountain. Along with preventing potential PTSD. Cannabis has a role in many aspects of fire fighting and prevention. Building materials resistant to fire to choking out brush and tinder to treating burns with Hemp Oil and Ganja dust. Same as for allergic reactions to the skin. As an expectorant for coughing up harmful smoke particulates, same as it does for cigarettes.

        I’m still using an old laptop that doesn’t do well with videos. I’ll check out Canna Craft in Santa Rosa when I upgrade. Frankenfeinstein has an opponent while FL GOPer girl Bondi thinks we don’t need a drug czar. Times they are a changing, getting weirder. Be Well.

        ☛ Fire! fire on the mountain!

        ☛ Expectorant

        The House That Hemp Built:
        Moldproof, Fireproof and Eco-Friendly
        As part of an emerging trend here in the U.S., many buildings are incorporating the use of a hemp-based material to provide insulation. The brick, which is known as “hempcrete,” is made by mixing the wood-like interior of the Cannabis sativa plant with lime and water to form a block that serves as a flexible, breathable, and fireproof insulation that is impervious to mold and pests.

        Practical, inexpensive fire-resistant construction material, with excellent thermal and sound-insulating qualities, is made by heating and compressing plant fibers to create strong construction paneling, replacing dry wall and plywood. William B. Conde of Conde’s Redwood Lumber, Inc. near Eugene, Oregon, in conjunction with Washington State
        University (1991-1993), has demonstrated the superior strength, flexibility, and economy of hemp composite building materials compared to wood fiber,

        Hemp has been used throughout history for carpet backing. Hemp fiber has
        potential in the manufacture of strong, rot resistant carpeting -eliminating the poisonous fumes of burning synthetic materials in a house or commercial fire, along with allergic reactions associated with new synthetic carpeting.

        ☛ GoFundMe shut down a crowdfunding page to help California marijuana growers harmed by recent wildfires.

        ☛ Here’s a look at the marijuana record of California Senate President Pro Tempore Kevin de Leon (D), who is challenging the reelection of ardent cannabis reform opponent U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA).

        ☛ Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi (R), whose name has been floated as a possible U.S. drug czar pick, says she’s not sure the country even needs to fill that position.

  2. Whose ignorance? Yes, the public must be educated.

    But it is the ignorance of the American Congress who continues to propose handling this issue with all the finesse of Al Capone and Elliot Ness era policing. Solutions that a cave man could come up with. We need modern wisdom and logic (like Carl Hart’s) for a situation that requires caring and medical wisdom for a solution – not swat teams and judges. A lack of justice comes about by our own stupidity in trying to handle this problem with the Justice Department (probably out of anger), instead of looking towards using the ideas of health, empathy, caring, and some common sense.

    Imprisoning people instead of helping them is the real crime. This is the real crisis: Congressional greed, laziness, and stupidity.

  3. Mouth says:

    Major Pharmaceutical companies from the U.S. and Europe have been linked to Radical Islam.

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/10/17/iraq-war-victims-allege-pharmaceutical-companies-bribery-led-u-s-troop-deaths/771290001/

    And just when I started to get used to meth, blow, smack, hash and weed funding the enemy.

  4. jean valjean says:

    Representative Marino (should there be an L at the end of his name?), the Republican congressional rep for the opioid industry, will not now be Trump’s drug Czar. These people take hypocrisy to a whole new level.

    “The legislation, and Marino’s role in pushing it, were the subject of a Los Angeles Times article last year. The topic got renewed attention this week after a report in the Washington Post and CBS’ “60 Minutes,” which detailed how major drug distribution companies had hired former DEA officials to help craft the legislation and then had pushed it through Congress.”

    http://www.latimes.com/politics/washington/la-na-pol-essential-washington-updates-rep-tom-marino-withdraws-his-name-from-1508244638-htmlstory.html

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-tom-marino-drug-czar-withdraw-opioid-epidemic-twitter-prescription-painkiller-worse-a8004961.html

  5. LoneStarSam says:

    My gut says fentanyl.

    2 US sailors die of apparent drug overdoses in same week at Submarine Base Kings Bay

    A Navy official said the overdoses were a result of cocaine, but cautioned there is a toxicology report pending.
    Kingsland Police Department is investigating the incident, with support by the United States Naval Criminal Investigative Service.
    “Tragically, we have lost two sailors in less than a week to apparent drug overdose,” Self-Kyler said. “The submarine force and Kings Bay leadership are taking these events seriously” and have ordered a urinalysis sweep of all Kings Bay commands “for opportunities to increase various spot checks (i.e. increasing frequency of urinalysis testing, command-wide unit sweeps, shipboard health and comfort inspections).”

    http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/17/politics/kings-bay-overdoses/index.html

    • DdC says:

      We’ve had this discussion before and its true in theory and ineptness of the DEA and greed of big pharma and its always been prohibition as the bottom line for doing harm. Inconsistent potencies, adulterations and greed on the streets. Prevents pure heroin as an option without clinics and a maintenance program to prevent it just being cut for more money. As long as it happens in a war zone its a moot point, except for maybe reducing the mainstream media ignorance. As long as propagandist keeping their cash cow and competition off the shelves control the message. The people are just collateral damage and statistics to use against reform they can’t get with Ganja that t’aint kilt nobody.

      Does heroin really kill?
      A look at the science of overdoses. Ryan Cooper
      http://theweek.com/articles/580204/does-heroin-really-kill-look-science-overdoses
      Every time there’s an airplane crash, somebody inevitably points out that driving a car is far more dangerous. Though death rates have fallen steadily in recent years, more than 30,000 people still died in motor vehicle accidents in 2013. That fact is by now a commonplace.

      What is less well-known is that deaths from drug overdoses now far exceed that of car accidents. More than 46,000 people were killed by drugs in 2013. Most of these deaths were caused by prescription drugs, but for an increasing proportion heroin was the culprit — 8,200, to be exact. Most of these heroin deaths are chalked up to overdose in the media, but there are reasons to be suspicious of this characterization. Is it really simple overdose killing people?

      For the most part, no. It turns out that most heroin deaths are probably not simple overdoses, but polydrug interactions, particularly between heroin and other nervous system depressants like benzodiazapines, tricyclic antidepressants, or alcohol. It’s an important distinction both for addicts themselves and for crafting a drug policy focused on harm reduction.

      For the most part, no. It turns out that most heroin deaths are probably not simple overdoses, but polydrug interactions, particularly between heroin and other nervous system depressants like benzodiazapines, tricyclic antidepressants, or alcohol.

      3 Reasons Why Alcohol Is Actually The Most Dangerous Drug
      https://sobernation.com/3-reasons-why-alcohol-is-actually-the-most-dangerous-drug/
      1 – Alcohol Kills More Than All Drugs Combined
      2 – Drunk People Do Crazy Things
      3 – Alcohol Use is Celebrated

      How many are still dying from prohibition?

      Cannabis Shrinks Tumors: Government Knew in 74
      http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/588

      Kicking people off of organ transplant list for MMJ cards.
      The Heartlessness of Dying for Prohibition
      http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/585

  6. Spirit Wave says:

    When even conservatively scrutinizing the relevant statistics regarding opioid use, we are basically left with 99% of the American population does not even use that class of drug.

    To even propose declaring a national emergency as such is unbearably asinine.

    Pure sensationalism for governmental and media interests is unethically at work here perhaps to distract the public from paying attention to serious (inter)national problems.

    Meanwhile, there are an estimated 88,000 alcohol-related deaths annually, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse & Alcoholism — which is far higher than the death statistic from opioids.

    Going tragically even well-beyond that total, according to the CDC, tobacco kills over 480,000 Americans annually.

    So… If we really need to focus public attention upon a drug-related issue, the logical priority should be upon tobacco followed by alcohol — the latter drug basically almost always making people stupider (so logically increases ignorance), and can poison to death.

    While tobacco rates are reportedly thankfully declining without a prohibition, alcohol use remains strong at about 60% use nationally.

    The logical reason for that high rate is alcohol is heavily promoted via mainstream channels. Its use is basically a rite of passage in high school and college. Alcohol is constantly promoted during professional athletic events. Sitcoms and talk shows leverage even alcohol abuse for humorous effect.

    Education is indeed the issue here.

    • DC Reade says:

      “When even conservatively scrutinizing the relevant statistics regarding opioid use, we are basically left with 99% of the American population does not even use that class of drug.”

      I was very surprised to learn from recent statistics that the actual number is quite a bit higher: 92 million Americans, according to the 2015 NIDA estimate.
      https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-opioids-prescriptions/more-than-a-third-of-us-adults-prescribed-opioids-in-2015-idUSKBN1AG2K6

      I knew it was a lot, but, wow. That’s 38% of American adults (according to the same source, as referenced in the article link.)

      Make of that what you will.

      I don’t think I received an opioid prescription in 2015. But I’ve had six of them since 2008: four for tooth extractions or tooth implants, one for a minor acute back sprain (100% recovered, thankfully), and one for shingles (that was serious pain, not just soreness.) Hydrocodone compounds every time. I still have some of the pills left. I don’t party with them. I know what the high is like, and I think it’s a little too easy to get comfortable with it.

      I do carry the pills on camping trips or wilderness hikes, in case of medical emergencies.

      I don’t recall ever receiving an opioid prescription before 2008.

      Remember to brush and floss ;-D

  7. High School Newspaper Gets Shut Down After Posting Articles on Marijuana Policy https://tinyurl.com/y9fx7dq9

    We have been taught by government to lie to the kids, exaggerate the bad, ignore any good, lots of egg commercials that provide no educational value at all (100% propaganda). This is why children come to harm. Carl Hart is sooo right.

  8. kaptinemo says:

    These ‘crises’ are (boringly, predictably) cyclical; you could transpose the dates of modern diatribes against opiates with those printed as far back as the early 1900’s and only the style of writing and a few words would change.

    Over and over, again and again, literally generation after generation(and lately, several times in a generation) the same old hysterical canto against ‘drugs’ (manly opiates) is histrionically blurted as if the substances had only been discovered yesterday and not scientifically studied for at least 2 centuries.

    Like the DrugWar itself, these occasional fits of cultural amnesia regarding the identical kind of ‘crisis’ experienced a mere decade ago is a testament to Santayana’s observation about how those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

  9. jean valjean says:

    OT
    California fires and the federal government’s drug war manipulations and distortions:

    “Unlike wineries or other farms with more conventional crops, cannabis growers don’t have access to federal crop insurance, due to marijuana’s continued illegal status, making their financial losses all the more catastrophic. (One grower who asked to remain unnamed told HuffPost their losses exceed $1 million.) And since the industry also has limited access to conventional banks, loans that could put farmers back on their feet will be hard to come by.

    The lack of conventional banking services hits hard in other unexpected areas as well. One farmer who spoke to HuffPost kept significant amounts of cash on hand due to federal banking restrictions. When the fire hit, it literally burned through their revenue that they kept in a storage area on the farm.”

    https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/california-wildfire-cannabis-growers-destroyed_us_59e63c74e4b08f9f9edaff1f?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009

    • NorCalNative says:

      jean, since I lost my house to the fires, it will never be “off-topic” for me.

      My hometown of Santa Rosa was preparing to be a central player in the new legal cannabis environment and the fires and lack of insurance for these folks will be devastating.

      I’m pleased to report that a dispensary in the town of Mendocino donated a 1/4 ounce when I told them I lost my house. And, the Holiday Inn Express in Fort Bragg, CA, where I’m staying has a cannabis-friendly smoking patio. That’s been a huge relief since I can’t smoke in the room.

      I plan to visit all the dispensaries and ask for some free weed cuz I need all the help I can get right now.`

      • jean valjean says:

        Norcal…. sorry for your loss. I hope you can quickly pick up the pieces of your life along with the rest of your neighbors. I had it in the back of my mind that some couch members may have been affected by the fires in north CA.

      • darkcycle says:

        Damn. Sorry NorCal. Let us know if we can help.

        • NorCalNative says:

          @darkcycle Thanks to you, I sprayed and was able to manage my emerging powdery mildew problem. I had a Sour Diesel plant I harvested in the glow of the fire coming over the ridge around midnight. All my neighbors for a couple miles in all directions also lost their places.

          Compared to a lot of folks who fled the fire in their bed-clothes, I had about 20-minutes to load my car. Saved 3 guitars and an amp, lost 3 amps and a guitar. Me and the cat are fine, and that’s what counts.

          I could use help finding the Unicorn, i.e., a furnished rental that allows pets. I don’t expect to stick around Sonoma County. Finding a place where I can smoke my weed and cultivate would be nice too.

        • darkcycle says:

          Can’t help with the Unicorn, glad to have been a help on the mildew front, but that seems trivial under the circumstances. If you’re looking to relocate significantly further North, I have people all over Washington and Northern Oregon here who can help with finding a rental. With medical endorsement you’re still able to cultivate in Washington(subject to absurd plant limits that most are ignoring anyway, Oregon is more reasonable). But most of my Cali friends were either also in the path of the wildfires, or down So. Cal. way….way too close to La-la land for my tastes, and probably yours as well. But hey, Washington has a better vibe now than Northern Cal has had for a while. You guys blew the farms up big there and it seems like everybody is more about the dollars and the plant counts. It’s lost the hippy back-to-the-lander vibe, it seems.
          Please keep us posted, and you can e-mail me. I keep this email for limited use, I bet you can guess why.. darkcycle@live dot com

        • NorCalNative says:

          Thanks. I’m open to relocating out-of-state, to the North.

      • Mouth says:

        Sorry to hear you lost your home NorCal. Have you thought about Oregon? Don’t move here . . . we’ve got people still waiving Confederate flags here and no prospects of cannabis legalization or medical (though we have an increase in CBD use). Maybe you can find an organization that will build you a really nice and strong house out of the cannabis fibers. What about moving to Alaska or is that too far north? I wonder if these fires will spark a hemp home revolution? I know nothing of cannabis cultivation: do you keep the plant but take the leaves or do you just take the whole plant and if so, what happens to the stalks?

        Well, NorCal, I hope for you to have an extra speedy relocation recovery and may the new place you go afford you at least a half acre where the land will produce you plants yielding 20 plus pounds per-harvest . . . and may it be so strong, that each pound will last a year.

  10. LoneStarSam says:

    Pro-Legalization Congressman To Target Anti-Cannabis Lawmakers

    His first target is Congressman Pete Sessions (R-TX). As chairman of the powerful House Rules Committee, Sessions, who is not related to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, has played a key role in preventing marijuana legislation from advancing.

    “We’re going to be putting up some billboards in Pete Sessions’s district. It’s going to feature a veteran and ask the question why Pete Sessions doesn’t want him to have access to his medicine,” Blumenauer said. “We’re going to make the point that there are consequences. This is not a free vote. People are going to take a position one way or another. And if they are going to be part of an effort to deny people access to medicine that can be transformational…this is going to be part of the political landscape this year.”

    http://preview.tinyurl.com/BlumenauerBillboards

  11. jean valjean says:

    Like Nancy Reagan before him, Trump needs something to distract the media away from the mess he’s making. In Nancy’s case it was the illegal acceptance of free designer frocks and other financial inducements from wealthy backers that produced Just Say No. In Trump’s case….. well take your pick. There are so many examples of things this mob-connected carnival barker might want to switch attention away from. Trump’s one talent in this world seems to be the ability to talk up a good con, so the drug war is tailor-made for him.

  12. NorCalNative says:

    Since Carl Hart is the current topic, folks here might be interested in the Democracy Now interview he had with Amy Goodman several weeks ago.

    Carl had just returned from the Philippines where he received death threats for countering Duterte’s meth propaganda. Duterte claims meth shrinks brains. Carl who knows better, said NO.

    Amy asked about Jeff Sessions and Carl’s response was that due to Jeff’s racist leanings, he likely wouldn’t aggressively go after the mostly lily-white cannabis industry. Carl is the only one I’ve heard express that opinion and I hope he’s right.

    • jean valjean says:

      Remember though that Sessions has said “good people don’t smoke marijuana.” In his tiny prejudiced mind hippies are conflated with people of color and he will use the law to harass and intimidate them all.

      • WalStMonky says:

        .
        .

        AG Sessions just doesn’t have the resources to enforce Federal cannabis laws.

        • jean valjean says:

          They’ll do it by scapegoating prominent cannabis entrepreneurs and handing out massive sentences including life without parole.

  13. strayan says:

    The iron law of prohibition strikes again:

    https://twitter.com/profhrs/status/921294906680905728

    How are those poor hamstrung boys at the DEA gonna deal with this?

  14. WalStMonky says:

    .
    .

    Well this is a Gomer Pyle moment….Surprise! Surprise!! Surprise!!!:
    New Zealand to hold marijuana vote under new leader Ardern

  15. Speaking of Gomer Pyle, Kevin is at it again:
    https://tinyurl.com/yajuwmwu

  16. Servetus says:

    Too many fingers are needed for one person to point to all those responsible for the opioid prescription scandal. Although Rep. Tom Marino is being cited for a Congressional bill he championed that opened up the opioid floodgates, the DEA and Senator Orrin Hatch are accused of playing significant roles as well:

    …The law was the crowning achievement of a multifaceted campaign by the drug industry to weaken aggressive DEA enforcement efforts against drug distribution companies that were supplying corrupt doctors and pharmacists who peddled narcotics to the black market. The industry worked behind the scenes with lobbyists and key members of Congress, pouring more than a million dollars into their election campaigns.

    The chief advocate of the law that hobbled the DEA was Rep. Tom Marino, a Pennsylvania Republican […]. Marino spent years trying to move the law through Congress. It passed after Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) negotiated a final version with the DEA.[…]

    Political action committees representing the industry contributed at least $1.5 million to the 23 lawmakers who sponsored or co-sponsored four versions of the bill, including nearly $100,000 to Marino and $177,000 to Hatch. Overall, the drug industry spent $102 million lobbying Congress on the bill and other legislation between 2014 and 2016, according to lobbying reports. [Emphasis mine]

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/investigations/dea-drug-industry-congress/?utm_term=.ddb0672486f9

    Alex S. Vitale writing for The Nation, cites the WaPo article:

    …the DEA oversees a multibillion-dollar enterprise whose primary purpose is to criminalize millions of people for the use of drugs. Nearly half of those incarcerated in federal prison are there for drug violations, including 60 percent of all female inmates. The DEA has kept marijuana on the list of Schedule 1 drugs in the face of widespread evidence of its benign nature. Racial disparities in the policing of the drug war remain profound.

    The Washington Post reported this week that the pharmaceutical industry holds immense sway over the DEA. Since 2000, the drug industry has hired at least 56 former DEA and Department of Justice officials. Others have gone on to work for them indirectly as lobbyists and lawyers. When Congress gutted regulations that allowed the DEA to restrict the distribution of opioid pills tied to hundreds of thousands of overdose deaths, this was done in cooperation with Rosenberg and his team.

    There is also a culture of corruption within the DEA. Officers are regularly arrested for taking bribes from drug dealers, stealing drugs and reselling them, and having sex parties with prostitutes hired by drug cartels… it’s time to join the Drug Policy Alliance and call for its abolition.[…]

    https://www.thenation.com/article/abolish-the-drug-enforcement-agency/

    Alex Vitale has written a new book titled The End of Policing. In it he “lays out … alternatives for addressing the public-health issues raised by drugs without relying on police.”

    And finally, we can’t forget the doctors who were bribed by pharmaceutical companies to push more opioids:

    6-MAR-2017 — …About 65 percent of those surveyed as a part of the study by Genevieve Pham-Kanter, PhD, an assistant professor in Drexel’s Dornsife School of Public Health, visited a doctor within the last year who had received payments or gifts from pharmaceutical or medical device companies. What’s more: Only 5 percent of those surveyed knew that their doctor had received such payments.

    “These findings tell us that if you thought that your doctor was not receiving any money from industry, you’re most likely mistaken,” Pham-Kanter said. “Patients should be aware of the incentives that their physicians face that may lead them to not always act in their patients’ best interest. And the more informed patients are about their providers and options for care, the better decisions they can make.”[…]

    AAAS Public Release: Two-thirds of Americans see docs who got paid by drug companies: Drexel University study

    • LoneStarSam says:

      So, basically, younger relatives of Arthur’s at the company, other executives at the company were brainstorming: What can we do about MS-Contin having its patent expire? And they said, “Well, what if we created a new time-release pain pill, but we don’t use morphine, we use another derivative of the poppy plant, oxycodone, and we create a time-release oxycodone pill, and instead of marketing it to cancer patients, we market it to 30 million back pain patients, we market it to people with menstrual problems, we market it to people with toothaches? So, what if we take this powerful drug that we know works for this one purpose, but then kind of give it to everybody?” And that was the billion-dollar idea, the $14 billion idea, that gave the Sacklers what is likely the largest fortune in pharmaceutical history.

  17. Mike says:

    gee {Please Gov Jerry Brown now is here you have seen your State become a leader in not allowing cannabis to be endangered. Now just like Silicon tech you can lead the
    world in [plant fiber board making and all the thousands
    of attending jobs to follow == it is said it will cost a billion in just one city to rebuild ok keep the building material in house and couple with solar and wind.

    The Hemp Cannabis industry and rec and med jobs are real.

    ~Calling for a X prize in the Cannabis industry for the
    best fiber board made out of cannabis which can be grown in 4 months so the fiberboard plants can be made now. The plants will help the burn soil to recover and use its nutes.

    • jean valjean says:

      Urban farming should be the way to go. Some of the best farm land in the Midwest is presently covered by abandoned buildings. A percentage of this has no doubt been contaminated by industry but could probably be used safely for some hemp production, while the clean soil is used for cannabis crops. Who knows, by transforming these areas into garden suburbs and providing jobs, people may start to move back to inner cities.

    • Mike says:

      grow it by the box car load dry it mix it with local fill

      then make bricks or spray on press flat or shape it or>?

      then make the very box cars that will be hallin the loads.

      then make the round cars that are tankers with three layers.

      jobs jobs jobs use money coming back from overseas

      Stop- all fed hunting of old hemp save the cannabis plant

      • Mike says:

        just reading what was said it would be great of the

        fiber composite would be fire resistant for replacing

        lost homes and also fire proofing already built ones.

        • jean valjean says:

          Impressive demo of hempcrete’s fire resistance:

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDzlGBAc658

        • NorCalNative says:

          @Mike and jean valjean, thanks for bringing this topic up, hemp construction is definitely something I plan to look into.

          If a flaming torch won’t ignite a hempcrete brick, that’s pretty freaking awesome. How construction costs compare to traditional methods is something I need to investigate.

          My understanding of hemp construction is that wall-thickness helps reduce heating and cooling costs as well.

          I’ve got homework to do.

        • Mouthy says:

          Imagine how much that would lower homeowners’s insurance. And it could improve time for people to escape a burning home with family, pets, and valuables before the flames and smoke were too much. It would increase the odds that the owner could stop the fire and for neighbors and the fire department to put out the flames before it was too late. Fire Resistant homes out of hemp not only will suck out CO2 from the air inside and outside, but reduce carbon emissions during events like electrical fires, lightning strikes and wildfires. A $100 million dollar disaster of destroyed neighborhoods could be reduced to only $20 or less million. It’s an economic and environmental win-win . . . plus all the job. And if hemp homes are slower to burn, it would reduce the time firefighters were used to save just one house and reduce water waste, while enabling the FD to respond to other fires, instead of being stuck on one.

  18. DdC says:

    Alan Clendenin elected chair of
    National Dems Southern Caucus
    10.20.17

    Many voters are also connecting the line of historical dots that connect famous mega-wealthy people who have manipulated the American people to support a fake “drug war” in order to create situations whereas cannabis users in Florida are convicted as felons, who lose their right to vote for life. The lies and acts contrived to create a class of felons unable to vote, along with the violations of personal privacy impacting an employee’s private life through pre-employment and random drug tests that include cannabis as a means to control the workforce of American voters are beginning to resonate with the working class. To the extent that change can soon be expected, here in Florida and elsewhere around the country.

    June 9, 2014
    State Democratic leader breaks with
    Wasserman Schultz over marijuana

    The vice chairman of the Florida Democratic Party – whose bid for the state party’s top job was thwarted by U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz – split with Wasserman Schultz on Monday over medical marijuana.

    ☛ Fundraiser for burned marijuana farms shut down

    ☛ HIGH ON HISTORY:
    Was Government Corruption at Fault for Cannabis Prohibition
    (or Was It Just Plain Old Ignorance)?

    ☛ NDLEA kicks as Indian hemp plantation owners smile to bank

  19. CJ says:

    Hi all. Figured this would be a good article for me to stop by and say hi and show proof of being alive. Yes I am still alive and the situation is in many ways the same as since when I first ever came here to Pete’s place all those years ago although with the huge thank God difference that I’m not homeless anymore. As long time regulars here know everything Mr. Hart has said here in terms of UK and Europe is stuff I’ve said for years. I believed it with every ounce of my being and my heart then and I do now. I have to say though that I envy my old self, coming here every day and other sites too doing my long posts and preaching the cause. It’s not that the fire has gone out of me or anything. And there’s been so much monumental change that it’s incredible to reflect on. When I first came here legalized weed in Colorado wasn’t even a serious idea. As I write this now I’m not at my house but rather my parents where I came this morning to have some coffee with them. It was in this house in 2011 in the year following my arrest where I lived and it was here I first found this site. In my bedroom still proudly nailed into the wall is the New York Times full page advert that the DPA had taken out at the time of the Colorado victory that says 80 years after the end of prohibition prohibition is finally coming to an end. It’s an awesome reminder.

    Another thing I wanted to say was from posting here on this site and some others back then people would read what I said and they went ahead and put in effort to find me online and find a way to talk to me and from that I was so flattered you have no idea. To have struck a nerve in some people to such a degree it’s hard to describe. And some of these people became very close friends of mine whom id end up talking to on the phone skyping etc. Candice being one I’ll never forget. Another great friend was Andy whom I know came here as well but whom I’ve not heard from in too long and I hope he’s alive and well. Chris another. The list goes on and on.

    I’ll never stop fighting this fight and I urge you all to feel the same and to never forget that we are undeniably right. I remember a year ago, me, CJ a long time homeless heroin lover who dropped out of high school when he was legally not allowed to, got into an argument with a doctor at a methadone clinic one of the biggest in New York city and not just any doctor but the absolute head doctor of the clinic, the head medical honcho. We argued and i assure you friends that I wasn’t prepared at all, I did not go there expecting this at all but it happened and it was instigated by the head of the administrative side of the clinic who’d been hinting to me that they wanted to set this showdown up. Well I can proudly say I won that argument and at the end all the head doctor could say, medical, scientific and sociological reasoning all destroyed was basically that heroin shouldn’t be used because it was illegal. LOL. Needless to say she apologized to me for everything and I guess took her defeat well.

    And also I know I’ve said it before but it never ceases to amaze me. I went to a well known BY detox rehab called arms acres. Just for the detox part of the program. My counselor was this guy who had been working there 2 years. He desperately needed that job. He was living in NYC and arms acres is not in NYC it is hours north and to go to it via public trans is insane but this man did and never ever missed a single days work. Well I got there and said all the things I’ve said here and guess what the day before my discharge right after the normal work day hours there ended for the staff that didn’t sleep there my counselor called me in for an impromptu meeting. Long story short he told me that he felt hopeless and like a failure and that because of what id been talking about he looked into heroin maintenance and felt that it was the only way he could truly make a difference. He asked me to tell him all I knew then and there. It was shocking. Also shocking was the next day, the day of my discharge, it was the first time the man had ever missed work and having seen him the day before he was in perfect health. I don’t think it was a coincidence.

    Ok friends I’m gonna go now but never give up let’s keep fighting and more than ever now the head of the DPA that replaced Ethan nadelmann is so my type she is super hot in my opinion so if any of you know her by all means send her my way!!!

  20. Mike says:

    Howard was at the DPA meeting talking about the Swiss model.

    http://www.citizensopposingprohibition.org/category/oth/

  21. Will 2018 be the year marijuana takes over?
    https://t.co/xNcdGyeS3n

    … “2018 may be a tipping point — the moment when the momentum of pot makes it impossible for state lawmakers to avoid.”

    … “Brian Vincente, an attorney who has been a leader in Colorado’s decades-long fight over legalization, thinks otherwise. “I think we’ve probably cleared the tipping point,” he told the Washington Examiner. “I think when California and Massachusetts came on board and legalized — I mean, California’s such a massively recognized global economy and Massachusetts, this puritanical, historic state — I think those two for me signaled that it’s the beginning of the end for prohibition.”

  22. Servetus says:

    A steady percentage of people in the US have used opioids in an illicit manner since peaking in 2003:

    22-OCT-2017 — …More than 13 percent of Americans 12 and older – nearly 1 in 7 – have abused prescription opioids at some point in their lives, researchers determined after analyzing the latest data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), an annual survey sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Additionally, while 8.6 percent of Americans abused opioids in 2000, by 2003 that number jumped to 13.2 percent, and it has remained steady at that level.

    “The amount of opioid prescriptions being written in the United States is breathtaking – essentially enough for every American adult to have a bottle of the pain killers in their medicine cabinet,” said Asokumar Buvanendran, M.D., lead author of the study, director of orthopedic anesthesia and vice chair for research at Rush Medical College, Chicago, and chair of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) Committee on Pain Medicine. “This in turn leads to opioid abuse because people may take more than needed, or the pills fall into the wrong hands. That’s got to change.”

    Because opioids can produce euphoria, they are highly likely to be abused. Opioid prescriptions are often written for an excessive number of pills, so patients may take more medication than they need and become addicted. Additionally, medication that is unused can be diverted to another person for illicit use. More than half of the people who misuse prescribed opioids get them from a friend or relative, not a physician, according to NSDUH data.[…]

    “While the illicit opioid use trend seems to have plateaued, there’s no evidence of a decline yet,” said Mario Moric, M.S., co-author of the study and a biostatistician at Rush Medical College. “Hopefully with increased national attention to the problem we will see a significant drop in abuse.”

    “Opioids are still an important tool for dealing with pain, but doctors need to prescribe fewer quantities,” said Dr. Buvanendran. “Also, patients need to be educated about the dangers for overuse and abuse and understand that pain usually can’t be solved solely with a pill, but needs to include exercise, physical therapy, eating right, having a social support system and developing good coping skills.”

    AAAS Public Release: After skyrocketing, opioid abuse plateaus but remains too high, national analysis shows–American Society of Anesthesiologists

    AG Jeff Sessions may need reminding of the inappropriateness of reigniting a drug war based on problematic opioid usage that has remained steady for the past 14 years. If Sessions accepted money from drug companies as Alabama governor, he needs to be reminded to recuse himself from federal prosecutions of any opioid drug company CEOs should they occur.

  23. Servetus says:

    University of British Colombia researchers demonstrate that psychedelics may become a crime-fighting tool in the future–that is, if US Attorney General Jeff Sessions doesn’t derail it by further stoking the drug war:

    23-OCT-2017 — Newly published research suggests that common psychedelic drugs–such as magic mushrooms, LSD and mescaline (a substance derived from the peyote cactus)–may reduce criminal offences.

    The new study, co-authored by UBC Okanagan’s Associate Professor of Psychology Zach Walsh, found that psychedelic drugs are associated with a decreased likelihood of antisocial criminal behaviour.[…]

    Key findings of the study are that respondents who have used psychedelic drugs had 27 per cent decreased odds of larceny or theft, and 22 per cent decreased odds of arrest for a violent crime in the past year. At the same time, lifetime use of other illicit substances was generally associated with increased odds of criminal behaviour.

    Hendricks says that psilocybin and related compounds could revolutionize the mental health field.

    “The development of innovative and effective interventions to prevent criminal behaviour is an obvious priority,” Hendricks adds. “Our findings suggest the protective effects of classic psychedelic use are attributable to genuine reductions in antisocial behaviour rather than reflecting improved evasion of arrest. Simply put, the positive effects associated with classic psychedelic use appear to be reliable. Given the costs of criminal behaviour, the potential represented by this treatment paradigm is significant.”

    AAAS Public Release: New study suggests psychedelic drugs may reduce criminal behaviors: Illicit substances may be effective interventions to crime

    • NorCalNative says:

      Really cool stuff. Thanks for new nectar.

      My best ever hallucination experience was psilocybin (not in mushroom form). Closed-eye visuals of a swirling vortex with colored bands in baby-blue and pink. Adjusting eye pressure (squinting) would speed or slow the swirling of the vortex.

  24. jean valjean says:

    Trump says Just Say No:

    ‘Of all the people Donald Trump could blame for the opioid epidemic, he chose the victims. After his own commission on the opioid crisis issued an interim report this week, Trump said young people should be told drugs are “No good, really bad for you in every way.”’

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/13/dont-blame-addicts-for-americas-opioid-crisis-real-culprits

  25. WalStMonky says:

    .
    .

    The juggernaut is still increasing speeds and scope. As a result the poor poor pitiful prohibitionists are suffering severe cognitive dissonance. Hopefully they can avoid chronic brain lock. That wouldn’t be a good thing for everyone.

    CLA Issues First Two Cannabis Licences

    History was created on Wednesday (October 18) with the issuing of the first two licences by the Cannabis Licensing Authority of Jamaica (CLA) for local entities to legally operate in the cannabis industry.

    Everyting Oily Labs was presented with a processing licence, while Epican received a licence for cultivation, during a press conference held at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries in New Kingston.

    Portfolio Minister, Hon. Karl Samuda, said he is pleased to be part of “this historic occasion”.

    “I think this is a tremendous occasion, and it’s one that marks the commencement of things that are going to be great for Jamaica,” he said.
    /snip/

  26. WalStMonky says:

    No ‘significant issues’ from marijuana legalization, says Colorado medical officer

    /snip/
    “The short answer is we haven’t seen much,” said Wolk.

    “We haven’t experienced any significant issues as a result of legalization.”

    One in four adults and one in five youth use marijuana on a somewhat regular basis,” said Wolk, and those numbers haven’t changed since legalization.

    More hospital visits

    Wolk noted marijuana has caused a few more visits to the ER, but most of those people are visitors, not residents. He credits an extensive education campaign with helping residents use marijuana safely.

  27. Mouth says:

    Opiates and Forbes: This time last year, they did a special feature on the king of opium, INSEYS’ John Kapoor, net worth just over $2 Billion and how he’s made a fortune on a mouth spray. And then there is the little story of a 32yr old Sara Fuller who was given Fentanyl mouth spray and Xanax by her doctor and then it pans to the nurse who pleaded guilty for receiving kickbacks from these big firms to sell hardcore dope. Kapoor alleges he created it in response to his wife who was in the utmost pain from a sickness. Then Forbes goes to show a chart comparing prescriptions and overdose rates since 1999. Then they go on to say that this guy is wanting to create a THC spray and an anti-overdose, naloxone spray as well.

    The October 2017 issue has a small little story about Lancaster , Ohio, which after WWII, saw a huge population boom and prosperity. Now this large town is 20% in poverty (higher than what the state average is) and has one of the worse opioid addictions and overdose rates in the country.

    I take it that Forbes is no fan of big time drug pushers and is pro-marijuana legalization because of the potential success it could have for young inventors and entrepreneurs. Though they’ve claimed Hillary was a Louse, they’ve long maintained Trump was a liar. I bet Wall Street and the kind of people who attract Forbes stories and Forbes readers are much more powerful than Jeff Sessions.

    I bet more than anything, AG Jeff Sessions is a commie because he wants to destroy capitalism at its core, especially with his obvious quote that ‘Good people don’t smoke marijuana’. Forbes loves to tout big rich powerful Pharmaceutical companies that go out of their way to stop cancers and other illnesses . . . they love to brag about the people who have a passion to take “2 years left of life to live” patients, who have been given extra years if not their whole life back. Truly good and merciful work does make a lot of money in the long run, while destroying the War on Drugs just means more money can be made for better things in the long run. Can you imagine bond ratings shooting up if states no longer had to owe and pay money for the war on drugs–while pocketing extra from the taxes and jobs created? From my just over one year of being a Forbes follower, I’ve seen them hardly brag about drug dealers . . . they already know AG Sessions and Scott Pruitt are in the way of positive success and change . . . Forbes loves to brag about people who give away clean energy or water. Imagine when the full potential of cannabis and hemp is set free for the world: from cleaner soil and water, to biodegradable plastics, cleaner fuel, healthier food, good houses, top-notch fancy clothing to strong anti-cancer drugs etc.

  28. Servetus says:

    Stop-and-frisks targeting minorities for possession of marijuana aren’t the only way to harass and criminalize subgroups and young people. Prohibition laws are arbitrary and capricious enough to be applied to virtually anything while achieving the same repressive results.

    For decades New York City has enforced an ordinance prohibiting ‘gravity knives’– folding knives that can be opened quickly with a simple wrist action, differentiating them from switchblades that open using a button and spring. District Attorney Cy Vance is a strong advocate and implementer of the gravity knife law “which has been used to jail thousands of working people of color.”

    10.24.17 — …Vance has been pilloried for passing up giftwrapped prosecutions of Harvey Weinstein and the Trump children. Vance has lobbied aggressively for years against reforms that have been percolating since 2014.

    The “gravity knife” law was first passed in 1958, and targeted at a large, menacing variety of knife similar to a switchblade. While true gravity knives are nearly extinct on the modern market, in recent years the law has been interpreted by New York City authorities to ban a wide range of common folding knives. Any knife that can be opened with a practiced flick of the wrist, which includes virtually every widely available pocketknife, can be shoehorned into the legal definition, even if it was never designed to operate that way. In most cases, the charge is a misdemeanor, but defendants with a prior conviction can draw a felony charge and up to seven years in prison.

    Take the case of Richard Gonzalez, a laborer Vance prosecuted in 2011 for the Husky utility knife he bought at Home Depot. The tool he had in his possession is exceedingly common, and generally used to cut drywall. Its exposed blade is about an inch long. When he was contacted by police in a subway station, Gonzalez wasn’t accused of using the knife to harm anyone, or even threatening to do so. But when an officer spotted it in his pocket, and found that it could be snapped open with a flick, he was arrested. Vance prosecuted Gonzalez’ case aggressively, and he ultimately served four years in state prison.[…]

    But there is no evidence that gravity knives, as a class, are especially prone to use in crime. And oddly enough, the law is almost never enforced outside of New York City. In contrast, as many as 70,000 people in the five boroughs have been arrested under the statute in the past 10 years, according to statistics compiled by the Legal Aid Society.

    About 84 percent of defendants were people of color, and a disproportionate number of them were prosecuted in Vance’s jurisdiction. One study found that Vance’s office had prosecuted about four times as many felony gravity knife cases as the rest of the city’s DAs combined.

    Public defenders complain that the law is little more than an easy way for officers to pad their arrest numbers in a quota-driven system. Maybe most maddening for lawyers who defend these cases is that such knives are still sold openly at retailers all over the city. The Legal Aid Society last year found more than 100 stores selling them in Manhattan alone. One hardware store on Gold Street in Lower Manhattan, a few blocks from Vance’s own office, has such knives in their front window.[…]

    https://www.thedailybeast.com/new-york-just-saved-a-law-used-to-jail-thousands-of-minorities

  29. CardsHouseBoom says:

    When even the Flakes in your party are abandoning ship, you may be in trouble.

    “We must never allow ourselves to lapse into thinking that that is just the way things are now. If we simply become used to this condition . . . then heaven help us,” Flake said, his voice shaking. “Without fear of the consequences and without consideration of the rules of what is politically safe, we must stop pretending that the conduct of some in our executive branch are normal. They are not normal. Reckless, outrageous and undignified behavior has become excused as telling it like it is when it is actually reckless, outrageous and undignified.”

    https://tinyurl.com/DrrrrrrrrSqueak

  30. Latest Gallup poll: 64% favor legalization.
    https://t.co/o6o1mo5zBo

    • DdC says:

      Majority of Republicans Support MJ Legalization
      http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread29173.shtml

      • Daniel Williams says:

        Those crazy fuckers!

        • jean valjean says:

          ‘The sharp shift in Republican voters’ views on pot is the most significant finding in the Gallup poll, coming during a time of increased federal skepticism of marijuana legalization efforts. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has asked lawmakers to undo federal protections for medical marijuana, repeatedly calling it a “dangerous drug.”’

          It’s just a shame that Republican politicians rarely share the same view as their supporters or the general public on legalization. Like prohibitionists on the other side, they know who butters their bread.

  31. U.S. to promote use of opioid alternatives to treat addiction https://tinyurl.com/yankyexb

    “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration plans to encourage widespread use among opioid addicts of less harmful opioid drugs such as methadone and buprenorphine, a radical shift in policy …”

  32. strayan says:

    So remember that Washington Post story I posted in the last thread about the drug industries triumph over the DEA? https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/investigations/dea-drug-industry-congress/?utm_term=.4d01144a3349

    TLDR: apparently the guys at the DEA were hamstrung and unable to do anything about big bad big pharma supplying opioids to all and sundry because of a law passed in 2016?

    Someone, other than Duncan and I, finally noticed it’s complete garbage:

    Ex-DEA Official Blames Congress, but His Own Agency Blessed Opioid Boom http://www.100daysinappalachia.com/2017/10/24/ex-dea-official-blames-congress-agency-blessed-opioid-boom/

    • I agree with this but I wouldn’t use it as an excuse to let congress off the hook. Corporate campaign funds are big business.

      I’ll never be able to figure out how throwing addicts in jail for using their drug helps them or anyone else. How is it even the business of the Justice Department at all until an actual crime has been committed?

      There is no sense here at all. Thank Congress.

      There never has been any sense in the DEA from the moment of its inception. These people in Washington are all playing hot potato while they place the blame – over there.

      They are all getting rich off of the corporate pharmaceutical industry.

  33. WalStMonky says:

    .
    .

    Is anyone interested in a heaping helping of schadenfreude just dripping with a thick, sweet and creamy irony? Hot off the virtual presses:

    Billionaire Insys founder charged in U.S. opioid bribe case
    October 26, 2017

    By Nate Raymond

    BOSTON, Oct 26 (Reuters) – The billionaire founder of Insys Therapeutics Inc was arrested on Thursday on U.S. charges that he participated in a scheme with other executives to bribe doctors to prescribe a fentanyl-based cancer pain drug and to defraud insurers.

    John Kapoor, 74, who stepped down as chief executive of Insys in January, was charged with having engaged in conspiracies to commit racketeering, mail fraud and wire fraud in an indictment filed in federal court in Boston.

    He was arrested in Arizona, where Insys is based, and added as a defendant in a previously filed case against six former Insys executives and managers, including former Chief Executive Michael Babich, prosecutors said.

    Brian Kelly, Kapoor’s lawyer, said in an email: “My client is innocent and he intends to fight these charges vigorously.”
    /snip/

    Well he certainly can afford the legal fees to fight the charges vigorously. The jackass thought he had himself insulated. I’ve got to confess that so did I. He may still wiggle off of the hook.

    • jean valjean says:

      I don’t think there’s much chance that this billionaire drug kingpin will end up in one of Joe Arpaio’s camps, with or without pink underwear. Now that really would be schadenfreude.

    • DC Reade says:

      also, this:

      “…In addition to the criminal charges, states have been suing Insys over its marketing practices.

      Meanwhile, the company has been active in politics, donating $500,000 last year to an Arizona campaign to defeat a ballot measure to legalize marijuana…”
      http://www.post-gazette.com/news/nation/2017/10/26/Drug-company-founder-indicted-US-opioid-conspiracy/stories/201710260165

      • DC Reade says:

        I want it understood here that as a general rule, my personal inclination is to give people the benefit of the doubt. Although I acknowledge that “malice aforethought” does actually occur on occasion, I require some evidence before my suspicions are raised. I’m not one to fly off the handle with accusations of conspiratorial malign intent.

        But, WTF?

        I’m having a hard time convincing myself that the decision of John Kapoor and his company Insys to spend $500,000 to defeat that Arizona marijuana ballot measure was motivated by nothing more than obdurate ignorance and misguided good intentions.

      • jean valjean says:

        They bought themselves $500,000 worth of self-righteous spin. Yes we promote and sell a product that is highly addictive and keeps ’em coming back for more, but we’re not pushers. Malice aforethought indeed.
        Meanwhile the FDA has come up with a “new” proposal to deal with the opioid “crisis,” promoting more of Big Pharma’s products (methodone etc.) No mention of course of cannabis as a proven non-addictive pain reliever.

        https://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm582031.htm

  34. “We want the next generation of Americans to know the blessings of a drug-free life,” – Donald Trump

    https://tinyurl.com/ydezwfjx

    Clueless.

    • jean valjean says:

      Channeling Nancy Reagan from the grave. A deeply embarrassing speech from the narcissist-in-chief, and of course, the “crisis” is all about him. Beyond clueless.

  35. CardsHouseBoom says:

    I sat down with the Corner Project’s director, Liz Evans, and asked her just how a place like this legally exists. She told me that public bathrooms are the frontline of the opioid epidemic. “People are dying in those bathrooms, and so there’s an acknowledgment that as a syringe exchange provider, we have a moral obligation to make sure that people don’t die in our building.” And so, the Corner Project has implemented a safety net to make sure that people don’t die from overdoses in the bathroom in their building. Everything in this story is a murky gray.

    https://tinyurl.com/SafeHouseBathroom

  36. DdC says:

    Domestic Terrorist J.BSessions “Can’t Comment”
    On Marijuana Crackdown Plans to loot and pillage sick Americans
    https://t.co/QoMmEeLEVs

    I didn’t hear one word about Big Pharma or Cannabis alternatives. Sounds like a pre-lude to a Better bigger wonderful new great better fabulous DARE. Headed by Melonia so she can get paid a huge chunk for just saying no. With Unkle Chris Christie winning the Drug Tzar contest. Clueless, or just another servant of Wall St and the Police/Prison Industrial Complex. He slickstered a change from federally funding something to not funding something, and letting states continue to not cope with it. Reality booze kills more than all drugs combined. Chemicals added to cigarettes kill 10 times more. Where’s the National Emergency downgraded to a Health Crises? With Big Pharma heading the HHS, FDA and AMA. Hey, I seen this movie. The bad guys always win.

    ☛ Trump Opiod Idiots.jpg
    https://t.co/uIUrW0LLIo

    @realDonaldTrump
    Effective today, my administration officially declared the #OpioidCrisis a NATIONAL PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY under federal law.

    *

    You mean Feds won’t fund anything. More killed from booze than all drugs combined. 10 times more dead from cigarettes. Cannabis od’s 0.

    Sorry to have to say it. But when someone dies from white powders. It becomes a statistic in the drug war umbrella. To continue persecuting Cannabis users. A proven alternative to opium drugs. Environment and polydrug combinations kill, not heroin coming from Mexico if it was dispensed as any S#2. Its a choice of door#1 Doctor Patient or #2 Cop Criminal. G.I. Draft Dodger has shown he has a small penis and desperately needs to compensate. So its pretty obvious its always been the choice behind door #2.

    @realDonaldTrump
    WORKING TOGETHER, we will defeat this #OpioidEpidemic & free our nation from the terrible affliction of drug abuse.

    *

    Your buddy Tom Marino (R-PA) legislation restricting the DEA ability to punish opioid manufacturers and their $billions in profit.

    ☛ The drug industry’s triumph over the DEA
    ☛ A Guide To Trump’s Gilded Inner Circle

    In Drumpf’s case it also adds to his hype to justify a big plastic bubble over the country. After the wall that has been upgraded with sophisticated electronic devices to alert agents someone is coming. I guess his window idea didn’t pan out. If all this electronic stuff is actually alerting agents, what is the point of a wall? The idiot from PA, Marinol, was chosen by the idiot in chief to be DEAth Tzar. The idiot was responsible for a law protecting Big Pharma. Its a Multi Trillion dollar scam and they get away with it because they can.

    Trump says we need Non addictive alternatives.

    ☛ Federal Government Admits Legal Cannabis
    Could Reduce Opioid Epidemic

    https://t.co/I1iSF3zogV

    ☛ Miner’s Lullaby Drug Overdoses & MMJ
    https://t.co/bofKVI8eeB

    Not a word by the propagandist whining about being saved from the mean uncouth ill mannered idiot . Because of their claim to be a Free Press? Not a word from any of them, before, during or after the 10 minute stand up routine. Then 24 hours of picking lice from his fake hair like a herd of monkey’s. Still not a mumble about reality. If you OD, forfeit the house and farm out the kids to Newt’s Orphanage to replace school janitors. To cover gutting HUD by a brainiac surgeon carson. Can’t make this shit up. Put the remaining parent in a profit prison. Clock Work Orange the schools with cop tanks and big guns to kill the druggies. What other message can be drawn than Hitler’s Youth League.

    Just click your ruby slippers three times and say it can’t happen here, it can’t happen here, it can’t happen here. Damn the dude said they was ruby!

    • NorCalNative says:

      Nice rant. Just Say Woe.

      Met some German tourists at my Holiday Inn Express in Fort Bragg. They’re scared that drumpf’s going to nuke North Korea and start WWIII.

      • DdC says:

        Looks like “Just Say Know” is slowly winning the battle
        over Ignorant Jeff and Sabeteur SAM.
        Just in time for the Big Bang.

        Americans Support Legalizing Marijuana
        https://t.co/L6oBTCJwZ7
        Support For Legal Cannabis At All-Time Highs
        https://t.co/hziOpKMzOm

        RMHIDTA’s Marijuana Reports
        Are Nothing but Propaganda
        https://t.co/YYb5gohBrw
        Law enforcement officials recently released volume five of their ongoing series of reports: “The Legalization of Marijuana in Colorado.” Like past reports on this subject issued by the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (RMHIDTA), this paper is neither objective nor peer-reviewed. As a result, news media, politicians and others should review these materials with a skeptical eye.

        Brookings Institute Calls Out Jeff Sessions
        for Blocking MMJ Research

        https://t.co/kHSRHmk17a
        Cory Booker Says War On Drugs Is A “Cancer”
        https://t.co/gBzkXc2iVI
        Ex-NBA Commissioner Says Legalize Weed in Sports
        https://t.co/0yah69oSzh

        IT IS TWO AND A HALF MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT

        Doomsday Clock
        ⓴⓱ For the last two years, the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock stayed set at three minutes before the hour, the closest it had been to midnight since the early 1980s. In its two most recent annual announcements on the Clock, the Science and Security Board warned: “The probability of global catastrophe is very high, and the actions needed to reduce the risks of disaster must be taken very soon.” In 2017, we find the danger to be even greater, the need for action more urgent. It is two and a half minutes to midnight, the Clock is ticking, global danger looms. Wise public officials should act immediately, guiding humanity away from the brink. If they do not, wise citizens must step forward and lead the way. See the full statement from the Science and Security Board on the 2017 time of the Doomsday Clock.

        • NorCalNative says:

          When getting rid of my deceased parent’s stuff I found a 1962 Department of Defense pamphlet of plans for building home bomb shelters. I lost it in the fire, but my favorite was #2, the “Asbestos Cement” shelter.

  37. Servetus says:

    Stanford researchers have horrifying news for organized religions that consider recreational copulation a sin—it’s possible marijuana may act as an aphrodisiac. However, the researchers stop short of calling their results proof of a cause-and-effect relationship:

    27-OCT-2017 — A study by investigators at the Stanford University School of Medicine indicates that, despite concerns among physicians and scientists that frequent marijuana use may impair sexual desire or performance, the opposite appears more likely to be the case.

    The findings, to be published online Oct. 27 in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, are based on an analysis of more than 50,000 Americans ages 25-45. And they’re unambiguous.

    “Frequent marijuana use doesn’t seem to impair sexual motivation or performance. If anything, it’s associated with increased coital frequency,” said the study’s senior author, Michael Eisenberg, MD, assistant professor of urology. The lead author is Andrew Sun, MD, a resident in urology.

    The study does not establish a causal connection between marijuana use and sexual activity, Eisenberg noted. But the results hint at it, he added. “The overall trend we saw applied to people of both sexes and all races, ages, education levels, income groups and religions, every health status, whether they were married or single and whether or not they had kids.”

    The study is the first to examine the relationship between marijuana use and frequency of sexual intercourse at the population level in the United States.[…]

    Moreover, Eisenberg said, the positive association between marijuana use and coital frequency was independent of demographic, health, marital or parental status.

    In addition, the trend remained even after accounting for subjects’ use of other drugs, such as cocaine or alcohol. This, Eisenberg said, suggests that marijuana’s positive correlation with sexual activity doesn’t merely reflect some general tendency of less-inhibited types, who may be more inclined to use drugs, to also be more likely to have sex. In addition, coital frequency rose steadily with increasing marijuana use, a dose-dependent relationship supporting a possible active role for marijuana in fostering sexual activity.

    Nevertheless, Eisenberg cautioned, the study shouldn’t be misinterpreted as having proven a causal link. “It doesn’t say if you smoke more marijuana, you’ll have more sex,” he said.

    AAAS Public Release: Regular marijuana use linked to more sex, Stanford study finds

    • NorCalNative says:

      I can’t be the only one here that thought of the tern “Sex and Drugs and Rock n’ Roll. Bout the closest I’ve got to “organized religion.”

  38. Mouthy says:

    Former Attorney General, Scott Pruitt rewrote the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana initiative, which did away with the medical aspect of it, therefore voiding the ballot illegal and in no way capable of getting enough signatures with a much shorter time frame. The original ballot initiative did talk about medical aspects of Medical Marijuana and received more than enough signatures. So in 2018, Oklahoma will have the right to vote.

    • Mouthy says:

      Original Text of Ballot:
      This measure amends the Oklahoma State Statutes. A yes vote legalizes the licensed use, sale, and growth of marijuana in Oklahoma for medicinal purposes. A license is required for use and possession of marijuana for medicinal purposes and must be approved by an Oklahoma Board Certified Physician.
      The State Department of Health will issue medical marijuana licenses if the application is eighteen years of older an Oklahoma resident. A special exception will be granted to an applicant under the age of eighteen, however these applications must be signed by two physicians and a parent or legal guardian.
      The Department will also issue seller, grower, packaging, transportation, research and caregiver licenses. Individual and retail businesses must meet minimal requirements to be licensed to sell marijuana to licensees.
      The punishment for unlicensed possession of permitted amounts of marijuana for individuals who can state a medical condition is a fine not exceeding four hundred dollars. Fees and zoning restrictions are established. A seven percent state tax is imposed on medical marijuana sales.

      Scott Pruitt’s Rewrite:
      This measure legalizes the licensed use, sale, and growth of marijuana in Oklahoma. There are no qualifying medical conditions identified. Possession and use of marijuana is authorized through a medical marijuana license that is valid for two years, rather than by prescription. An Oklahoma board certified physician must recommend the license using the same accepted standards for recommending other medications, and must sign the application for the license.
      The State Department of Health must issue a license to an applicant who:
      submits a valid application,
      is eighteen years or older, and
      is an Oklahoma resident.
      Applications for individuals under eighteen must be signed by two physicians and by a parent or legal guardian. The Department also issues seller, grower, packaging, transportation, research, and caregiver licenses to those who meet certain minimal requirements.
      A 7 percent state tax is imposed on retail sales of marijuana. Unlicensed possession by an individual who claims to have a medical condition is punishable by a fine not exceeding $400
      Local government cannot use zoning laws to prevent the opening of a retail marijuana store. This measure does not change federal law, which makes use, sale, and growth of marijuana illegal.

    • NorCalNative says:

      Scott Pruitt is the current administration official that scares me most. Seems his plan is to build a wall around oil-extraction wealth rather than replacing the shit with renewable energy. Not good.

      The main reason I’m posting this comment though, is that nobody stood up for Oklahoma’s Woody Guthrie and Sunil Kumar Aggarwal, M.D. recently. Brad Pitt and Garth Brooks?

      Dude, and this goes for anyone who loves the couch and couch-style interests, NEEDS to be following Sunil Aggarwall’s tweets. If you can find your way there you’ll probably be hooked. Sunil’s thing is cannabis but he frequently posts about psychedelics and related studies. Sunil attended Cal Berkeley at the same time as Kevin Sabet and he’s been an anti-fan of Kevin ever since.

      Anyone who places a “This Machine Kills Facists” on their guitar as Woody Guthrie did, is a hero of mine.

      BTW, met a current Navy sailor stationed in San Diego. He talked about the illegal drug trade and cartels as a significant factor in America’s foreign adventures much as you have.

      • Mouthy says:

        I checked out Dr. Aggarwal’s posts. Oklahoma is a sad state to live in, but so beautiful is the scenery. I’m glad he’s from Oklahoma and I’ve probably bumped into him a few times in the 90’s. Google is making the lives of one community awesome, while the rest of Oklahoma dies from lack of funding, so hopefully Silicone Valley can rub off on them . . . where schools are closing down and doing 4 days a week, the Google town is making improvements on the community and schools.

        As I always say, America has spent $4-7 Trillion just on the War on Drugs since 9/11 . . . if half our enemy is funded by drugs, then half our war bill is because of drugs. When I came home, I obliterated my hope of getting a Ph.D so I could focus on any studying and creative writing in regards to ending the drug war . . . I’m tired of seeing middle class Brits killing American soldiers with their noses. My end of the year final for my BA was 100% about the War on Drugs: short stories, a longer story, artwork and photography.

      • Hope says:

        NorCalNative, I, too, was grieved to see you’d lost your home and everything else in the fires. I’m so sorry. You’ll rise up from those ashes and you’ll be better off than ever is what I’m hoping for.

  39. DdC says:

    Tell Congress:
    Take Real Steps to Address the Opioid Crisis

    Yesterday, the Trump administration addressed the opioid epidemic, declaring it a national health emergency, and putting forth a plan for increased law enforcement action and a “really tough, really big, really great” advertising campaign to discourage drug use.

    Empty rhetoric won’t save lives. We’re in a situation we can’t “just say no” to and hope it goes away.

    People are dying every day. One hundred and forty-two people die of overdose daily;* since 1999, the number of American deaths due to opioid overdose has quadrupled.** The Trump administration’s solution is to access the Public Health Emergency Fund, which amounts to an additional $57,000.*** That amount wouldn’t cover legitimate treatment options for ten people, much less the tens of thousands that will die of opioid overdose this year.

    This is a public health crisis. Actions speak louder than words, and “Just Say No” style advertising tactics don’t work. They were a failure and an embarrassment in the 1980s, and they are even more out-of-touch today. We need real solutions: harm reduction measures like safe consumption spaces, naloxone distribution, and Good Samaritan laws to protect people who report an overdose.

    We need open, honest drug education, and we need accessible treatment options for all who choose to seek it. We need to treat the opioid crisis like the public health issue that it is, without threat of legal consequence.

    We’re talking about people’s lives. That’s worth more than platitudes and funding that amounts to little more than a band-aid on a hemorrhage. To all those who’ve suffered the loss of a family member or friend to overdose or addiction, and to all who struggle with opioid addiction every day: we are with you. We won’t stop speaking out for more practical, compassionate drug policy. As law enforcement, we are responsible for protecting all of those who reside in our communities, and we want people to trust us. We can’t build that trust back when we are tasked with arresting people who need help.

    Tell your Congressperson: take real, health-based steps to address the opioid crisis now.

    In solidarity,

    Major Neill Franklin (Ret.)
    Executive Director
    The Law Enforcement Action Partnership

  40. NorCalNative says:

    OT. Heads up to couchie Alan Erickson in Eugene, OR.

    I’ll be spending a week in Eugene in mid-November and then a week in or near Bellingham, WA after that, where I’ll touch bases with darkcycle.

    Unfortunately all the photos I purchased from Alan, (cannabis and nudes) burnt in the fire. Would be cool to have the chance to replace them with insurance cash. Plus I miss Alan’s calendars.

    • I am shocked reading about what happened to you in the fire NorCalNative. Lord knows you have had your share of bad times already. That things will be looking up from here on out, are my wishes for you. Not much more I am able to do but wish you the best.

  41. Neuroscientist Dr. Carl Hart: People Are Dying in Opioid Crisis Because of Politicians’ Ignorance
    https://t.co/006v8WqLy9
    At Democracy Now! Published on Oct 27, 2017

  42. jean valjean says:

    More on hempcrete:

    “Can you smoke your house?”
    “No, in fact you can’t hardly burn it!”

    about 42:30

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s599N6f-6s4

    • Mouthy says:

      That’s not what Congressman Mark Wayne Mullen believes. When I wrote to him about legalizing hemp, he said he didn’t agree with it because it was addictive, bad for kids and the FDA hadn’t approved it.

      • DdC says:

        Feinstein too. I admit, my blue jeans and shirts are comfortable and wear well. Hemp Oil has been helpful in warding off antibiotics for patients. I wouldn’t call them addictive. Either the Trillions in tax dollars spent on prohibition. Or keeping a superior product for making cars and homes, Homegrown by family farmers without poisons. Off the market shelves. Fracking the water, acidifying the oceans and fouling the air. I don’t think the message to the kids is anything other than we hate you and want you to suffer so we can profit on the monopoly of big pharma treatments and side effects. Prisons and Re-Education Asylum profits ridding the kingdom of nonconformists. But I’m an optimist,

        ⦁ DiFe Feinstein splainin why hemp is illegal.

        ⦁ Feinstein says Leahy’s and Rohrabacher-Farr Amendments go too far in tying the federal government’s hands

        ⦁ Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson (R) said he worries that legalization will send kinds the message that marijuana “isn’t a big deal.”

        These WoD Junkies are addicted to being cowardly assholes, and there is one immediate cure in sight. Remove the laws. Left and Right is now Up and Down. Always going after the most vulnerable citizens. Elderly, the sick and disabled, kids and the poor. Ignorance at this magnitude should not be paid tax dollars. Or even have the ability to fill out the job application. Either they lie about their ignorance and use more research as an excuse to stall. Or they are actually that ignorant and I’m sure there are alternatives who can think for themselves. Who would do a better job representing the people. Cronies like Pruitt and Carson kissing the Fake King’s fat ass. Or the blindly faithful following orders who to vote for is a waste of good Independence.

        They say Ganja or Ignorance brings bliss,
        so its a choice.

        The ignorance is one of the only things that does trickle down. If the experts have never been taught then they are only excerpts repeating gossip. Recently I have heard of two Universities possibly doing studies. Plus Oaksterdam.

        ⦁ A study found that “healthcare professional preparedness has not proportionally evolved with the exponential nationwide increase in medical cannabis use, thus highlighting a potential area of improvement in medical education.”

        ⦁ No medical schools have a department of endocannabinoid science or an ECS director. None of them taught the endocannabinoid science as an organized course. Only 13% of the medical schools surveyed mention the endocannabinoid science to our future doctors

        Indians seem to have sovereignty and Sheldon Addlebrains blessing to toss coins into hungry slot machines. Or sell 800 million gallons of water a year from Nestle’s on the rez, during a drought. But not enough sovereignty to grow Hemp or Ganja. Actually the ignorance makes me wonder how we’ve survived 241 years.

        ⦁ Tribal group sues San Joaquin County over hemp grow

        ⦁ The Ganjawar Comes to the The Rez

        sov·er·eign·ty
        säv(ə)rən(t)ē / noun

        the quality or state of being sovereign,
        or of having supreme power or authority.

  43. strayan says:

    Hey couchmates, remember when ‘marijuana treatment admissions’ were proof that weed was dangerous and addictive?

    Well marijuana is nolonger dangerous or addictive in Washington State: https://twitter.com/tomangell/status/924764093378187264

  44. DdC says:

    How many morons can you fit inside a state capitol?

    Apparently there is no end.

    Confusion Coming with California’s Legal Marijuana
    http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread29176.shtml

    1 grow plant
    2 harvest plant
    3 prepare plant
    4 roll it up and smoke it. geeesh.

    Anyone banning the plant due to danger it poses needs to prove it.
    If not, they need to be stoned. Their choice between Kush or Rocks. dilly dilly.

    Listen to the people…

    ⦁ An analysis of opioid-related tweets found that marijuana as pain management alternative is one of the most common topics of discussion on the issue.

    All signs are pointing to almost all Government officials caught up in an epidemic of naive and gullible acts. Previously thought to be a symptom of Psychosis with diagnosed Idiots to border line Imbeciles. When the word “marijuana” appears they revert into babbling hysterical weirdness. Giving these positions to non using tax paid officials guarantees the opposite result of lessening harm and providing a less expensive alternative to the status quo. Why would you give the keys to the Asylum to the inmates? Or have Ford build Chevrolet’s. 45 years Nark Cops and other Low Life politicians have persecuted Americans. Welfare queens diverting taxes from the infrastructure to petty gossip against Cannabis in all forms, and its users.

    Now the tax $$$ roll their eyes like Bill Bennets slot machines. Here’s a tweet. KEEP GOVERNMENT HANDS OFF OF CANNABIS. The people know what to do. They have established an infrastructure in spite of the government administrated confusion to stall and divert and feed hobgobblins to parents and kids. Mood, memory, fatigue, and obesity is almost a requirement for government employment. Christie is going to teach us about health? Synthetic Drugs may be bad, but the fifth big mac and the drugs it contains are okay fine? Insy or Mickey D all sell chemical crap to the people with the same government go ahead. More side effects on drug commercials than benefits, A-OK rubber stamp approved by the FDA.

    ⦁ A study concluded, Cannabis may have positive impacts on mood, memory, fatigue, and obesity status in people with Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis.

    ⦁ A study found that “the use of cannabis only did not increase the risk of psychosis.”

    But

    ⦁ Drugwar Lies Linked to Schizophrenia

    Its great the NYT is finally checking out the pisstasters impact on separating undesirables and people of color from their paychecks. Since Nanny Rayguns and billions in profits and contracts for purity allegiance. For the pure people without color.

    ⦁ The New York Times looks at drug testing’s impact on the labor pool.

    Just one Sabet groupie lab technicians drug mishandling may have tainted 40,000 cases
    http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/678

    Knowing urine test are inaccurate at best and have no way to distinguish impairment. Forcing employees and children to be watched urinating, for cheating prevention, cost the company more than the test kit. A tool of bigots to weed out the wrong thinking or whistle blowing employees. Just an Un-American act of icky people who grow orchids and drool.

    SCAPEGOATING – Blaming social problems on a cultural, racial, or behaviorial group. PREJUDICE – Selling the public on the idea that all members of the targeted group are ‘bad’ people. LIES – ‘Facts’, which cannot be verified, and pseudo scientific studies are used as propaganda against the targeted group. History is rewritten. NO PUBLIC DEBATE – “These people have no right to have their viewpoiunt aired.” and ” Anyone who disagrees or questions us must be one of them!” DEHUMANIZATION – Characterizing all members of a targeted group as subhuman and typically capable of monstrous deeds and/or crimes. PROTECT OUR CHILDREN – “They corrupt, seduce and or destroy our children.” CIVIL LIBERTIES SACRIFICED – “We must give up some of our freedoms, liberties, and rights in order to combat this menace to society.” LEGAL DESCRIMINATION – Laws criminalize members of targeted group and they may be denied jobs, the right to own property and/or be restricted as to where they may live or go. INFORMERS – Citizens are urged to ‘turn in’ friends, neighbors, co-workers and family members. SECRET POLICE – Non-uniformed police squads set up to wage war on targeted groups utilizing deception, infiltration, espionage and entrapment. CONFISCATION OF PROPERTY – Property and assets are seized from people who are members of targeted group. Property may be divided between the informer and the state. REMOVAL FROM SOCIETY – Prisons, rehabilitation camps, ‘hospitals’, executions and genocide…

    “Kill Them All” “Zero Tolerance”

  45. Mouthy says:

    It’s only a matter of time when our War on Drugs succeeds in getting a terrorist network to murder a hundred thousand to a million plus Americans, Canadians, Aussies, or Europeans with Fentanyl laced foods or water. Look at what happened in Queens, New York with 270 lbs of drugs. What about a Fentanyl based gas? Look at Moscow and their Opera house terrorist attack. Legalize all illicit drugs and the demand for all drugs will be reduced and the funding for said operations will be reduced.

  46. Servetus says:

    Professor Carol Anderson at Emory University has written a new book called White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of our Racial Divide, that is being praised by its reviewers and has won the National Book Critics Circle Award. In her book Dr. Anderson cites the drug war as a major player in marginalizing the education system for non-white Americans. Below is an excerpt from an interview by Jennifer Berkshire at Alternet:

    Jennifer Berkshire: White Rage singles out two particularly devastating policy paths America has taken. One is the failure to implement Brown vs. Board, and the other is the war on drugs. In many ways it’s the intersection of these two that put us on the path to where we are today.

    Carol Anderson: Just think about it. Think about what happened in California, for example, and what happened to the budget there. You had an almost dollar for dollar movement from the higher education budget to the prison budget. It was the same thing in Missouri where I taught, and watching this happen was just infuriating. When you think about the amount of money that the U.S. has spent on the war on drugs, $1 trillion, this isn’t an issue of resources, it’s an issue of priorities.

    When you have a thriving economy, then tax dollars and resources are used to keep that economy thriving. When you ex out millions of your own people, then you’re paying heightened costs for security: more police, more armament, more jails. That’s not an investment. Even now when we’re hollering broke, we have the resources to make smarter, better, more inclusive choices.[…]

    https://www.alternet.org/white-spite-trump-politics-resentment

    • DdC says:

      U.S. has spent on the war on drugs,
      $1 trillion, this isn’t an issue of resources,
      it’s an issue of priorities.

      Unfortunately “priorities” are with those putting part of that $trillion in their pockets.

      These are the same who haven’t cured anything since Polio took profits from the steel and leather companies making leg braces. Profit prisons is the agenda of Sessions, along with rehabilitation asylums. Not only druggies, but unemployed, homeless and sick people are of more “value” in a $35k/yr cage. Just like sabotaging legalization with high taxes and stalled legislation. We should stop believing they care about humanity over profits.

      Fitch Ratings released an analysis suggesting that marijuana taxes may exceed 45% in some part of California.

      • jean valjean says:

        Reminds me of this guy, jailed in Louisiana (highest incarceration rate in the world) to life without parole, for $5 worth of cannabis. This is what the war on drugs is really all about: the money.
        Oh, and how do you explain a sentence like this Mr. Kevin (no one goes to jail for pot) Sabet?

        https://www.alternet.org/drugs/man-serving-life-prison-5-worth-pot

        • Servetus says:

          As a 17-year-old residing temporarily in Baton Rouge in the early 70s I was told the penalty for possession of a kilo of pot was life in prison. And yet, our little group could buy a pitcher of beer on Bourbon Street with no questions asked while an actual hurricane was happening outside the strip joints and bars. Weird place, New Orleans.

      • DdC says:

        Sticker shock coming with California’s new pot market

        On a retail level, it costs about $35 to buy a small bag of good quality medical marijuana in Los Angeles, enough to roll five or six joints.

        But in 2018, when legal sales take hold and additional taxes kick in, the cost of that same purchase in the new recreational market is expected to increase at the retail counter to $50 or $60.

        At the high end, that’s about a 70 percent jump.

        Medical pot purchases are expected to rise in cost too, but not as steeply, industry experts say.

        Or consider cannabis leaves, a sort of bottom-shelf product that comes from trimming prized plant buds. The loose, snipped leaves are typically gathered up and processed for use in cannabis-laced foods, ointments, concentrates and candies.

        Growers sell a trash bag stuffed with clippings to manufacturers for about $50. But come January, the state will tax those leaves at $44 a pound.

        That means the tax payment on a bag holding 7 or 8 pounds would exceed the current market price by five or six times, forcing a huge price hike or, more likely, rendering it essentially valueless.

        Note. Compassionate Use Act not the MMJ Act
        http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1578

        Jeff Sessions Once Again Hints That a Marijuana Crackdown May Be Imminent

        The marijuana industry faces a brick wall of opposition

        But just because a majority of the public is in favor of legalizing marijuana, it doesn’t mean the drug has gained any traction in Washington. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill remain mostly skeptical about cannabis’ risk-versus-benefit profile, and many worry what will happen to adolescents if they have easier access to marijuana if home-grow is an option.

        My view is that crime does follow drugs. In the ’70s and ’80s, we saw so many lives destroyed by drug abuse. And I think the drugs today are more powerful, they’re more addictive, and they can destroy even more lives. Young people had their lives destroyed. I, as you know, am dubious about marijuana — as states can pass whatever laws they choose. But I’m not sure we’re going to be a better, healthier nation if we have marijuana being sold at every corner grocery store. I just don’t think that’s going to be good for us. We’ll have to work our way through that.

        ‘Good people don’t smoke marijuana’

        The Ku Klux Klan ‘was OK until I found out they smoked pot’
        ~ AG Jeff Sessions

        “Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men.”
        ~ Harry Anslinger

        The FDA Is Not Here for These Cannabis Companies
        Making Bogus Cancer-Killing Claims
        twitter thread

        Marijuana prohibited on UC property,
        despite passage of Prop. 64

        Sue Matthews, Associate Vice Chancellor, Colleges, Housing, and Educational Services (CHES) and Lucy A. Rojas, Interim Dean of Students
        UC prohibits the use, possession and sale of marijuana-in any form-on all university property, including university-owned and leased buildings, housing and parking lots. Marijuana is also not permitted at university events or while conducting university business.

        Using and possessing marijuana is still illegal under federal law. The federal Drug Free Schools and Communities Act, and the Drug Free Workplace Act require that UC, which receives federal funding, have policies that prohibit marijuana use, possession, and distribution on campus and in the workplace.

  47. DdC says:

    New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) claimed that legalizing marijuana will cause deaths.
    http://fox59.com/2017/10/30/new-jersey-gov-chris-christie-visits-indianapolis-to-talk-about-nations-opioid-crisis/

    Trump Opiod Idiots.jpg
    http://oi65.tinypic.com/fnbcdx.jpg

    Guv Christ Christie, 48, Hospitalized for Asthma/Obesity 07/29/11
    https://t.co/6EKM101nKq

    Wasting Obesity on Ganja
    https://t.co/6n8hTpJjxa

    Ganja Asthma Treatment
    https://t.co/3aBfRZnJxy

    • DdC says:

      The President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and Opioid Crisis held its final meeting and approved a report to the president. In an attached letter New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), chair of the commission, compared medical marijuana’s legislative momentum to the opioids crisis. At the meeting, U.S. Housing and Urban Development Sec. Ben Carson argued that cannabis use leads to addiction of other drugs.

      Legalization activists held a protest outside the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Affairs over its policy of kicking people out of public housing for marijuana.

      New Mexico regulators will consider adding opioid use disorder as a medical cannabis qualifying condition this week.

    • DdC says:

      Alex you need to wash your eyes after reading about this nutjob. Sounds like a Syke out or Syko. Something in the bottled water.

      Courtland Sykes U.S. Senate candidate in Missouri
      booted from Facebook.

      It’s a federal crime to use or transport or to buy or sell marijuana in all 50 states and it should be—no matter what a state thinks it can do—federal law prevails. A country that legalizes recreating with drugs is debauched—it draws in kids, it kills innocents, it destroys lives and leads to hard drug use—I oppose it, absolutely, and always have.

      A Missouri representative is proposing syringe exchange legislation. So everyone isn’t drinking it. Drumpf’s flushing them out of the woodwork. Next time put up a warning so I can avoid the crazies.

      Treating Autism with Cannabis
      Now Has Scientific Support
      Autism is challenging to treat pharmacologically because there’s no single cause. But a recent study suggests that cannabidiol (CBD) could offer relief for people on the spectrum.

Comments are closed.